Images and Feelings
by PsychoCircus
Summary: Four years after ROTJ, Han, Leia, Chewie, and C-3PO are cleaning out Leia's former office in the Imperial Palace (formerly the Senatorial Building of the Republic), and discover some interesting relics. A vignette, originally published on another fan fic site about eleven years ago under my Star Wars alias, Jedi Linewalker
**AN** – Four years after ROTJ, Han, Leia, Chewie, and C-3PO are cleaning out Leia's former office in the Imperial Palace (formerly the Senatorial Building of the Republic), and discover some interesting relics. Please read, review, and tell me what you think!

The elevator stopped with a light shake as it reached the floor the woman who stepped from it had requested. Her dark eyes swept the dimly lighted corridor briefly before moving down the hall towards the office that was her final destination. This building had been all but deserted for the past four years, and the smell of the air was stale, and old smelling.

As she drew nearer to the office door, she paused. This office had been the office her father, correction, _the only father she had ever known,_ had occupied during his tenure as the Senator of Alderaan, and it's the same office she herself later held when she sat on the Imperial Senate when he had stepped down from office. The building held many ghosts of her past, and at the moment, her small frame shivered at the very thought of entering the office she hadn't seen the inside of in almost ten years, since she had been intercepted in the Outer Rim, flying past Tatooine, on her way back to Alderaan, from a secret rendezvous in which she'd obtained the technical readouts for the dreaded Death Star battle station. That day had changed her whole life, irrevocably, forever.

She drew a deep breath and stared into the darkened ceiling above the soft amber lights that barely illuminated the hallway. She shivered again and forced herself to calm down a bit. Right then, Leia Organa Solo envied her brother, Luke, his serenity that he had earned hard during his Jedi training. He always seemed so calm, even in instances like this. Though he'd shown her a few things about the Force, her grasp and intuitive ability with it didn't seem to compare to his. She had kept putting off her training with Luke, letting affairs of state get in the way of the training that Luke repeatedly told her she needed.

Now, with Mon Mothma being so ill, it wouldn't be long before she'd probably name her successor to the Head of State of the fledgling New Republic, and so far, all bets were it'd be her that Mon Mothma would select. Besides the ailing former Senator, Leia had been the most active in pursuing the courses of action that led to the New Republic being formed. Mon Mothma had made several allusions over the years that Leia reminded her very much of her mother, her _real_ mother, the woman that Leia never knew as anything other than images and feelings.

Leia had never asked too many questions. Bail and Breha Organa had been the only parents she'd ever known. Of course, she'd known she was adopted since she was a little girl, but she'd never asked many questions about her real parents, especially after Luke told her that Anakin Skywalker, also known as Darth Vader, Dark Lord of the Sith, was their father four years ago, on the forest moon of Endor. That little piece of information had horrified and repulsed her so badly, she wasn't sure she wanted to know anything else. She was still furious at her father, Anakin, for the things he'd done, the atrocities, over the years. Not just those perpetrated on her, but all of them.

Taking a deep breath, she started through some of the Jedi relaxation techniques Luke had taught her. _Anger is a path to the Dark Side,_ she reminded herself sternly. _The fear of being Darth Vader's child leads in part to the anger, the anger leads to the hatred I feel at the very mention of his name, and that hatred will lead to suffering before its over…and that leads to the Dark Side._ Leia shook her head slowly, with an almost ironic smile on her lips. Just four years ago, she'd never find herself thinking this way, but since Luke had told her that she could, and did, have the same power that he did, and began training her, she'd become much more conscious of her emotions and thoughts. She couldn't afford not to, not with the depth to which she normally felt things. She had to keep a very tight rein on herself.

She finally banished all thoughts of such things from her mind and approached the door to the office. Inside, she knew, it would be quite spacious, almost ostentatious. The office was a suite of rooms, designed for the Senator and their staff to function in comfort and some luxury, originally, when the Senatorial Complex was built during the time of the Old Republic. Also inside, she knew, her husband, Han, their faithful and furry companion Chewbacca, and possibly Threepio, the golden protocol droid, were already busy performing the task that she'd set for them all today. Today, they were beginning the cleaning up and restoring of the Senatorial Complex. On the many different hundreds of floors, there were droid cleaning squadrons and living cleaning crews alike, among them many of the newly elected Senators that would be taking the office they were cleaning up. Leia figured that if the task were going to be done well, the people who would be working here would need to have a hand in its restoration.

That being said, she'd been detained and was thus arriving late to her own cleaning detail. There were mostly old data pads and cards, some holo storage spheres and the like, probably, laying around, but there was also a fair amount of debris left over from the building being deserted and not maintained for four years, not to mention the ecstatic actions of the citizens of Coruscant when the Empire had been declared destroyed. The building had fallen into disrepair, and without the normal complement of maintenance droids, the building was in dire need of cleaning up and restoring.

Her fingers moved to the panel alongside the door and pushed the buttons and the door slid open. Sure enough, within the outer office were Han, Chewie, and Threepio. Han was digging yet another box out of a small archival closet, and Chewie was picking up the larger pieces of debris, bad furniture and the like and setting it aside to be disposed of.

Alongside the wall was a veritable fortress of boxes much like the one Han had just hauled out of the closet. They were all neatly stacked where her husband had set them. He smiled a rather lopsided and cockeyed grin at her as she entered the office. "There you are, your worship," he teased, needling her like he used to do in the old days, before they'd admitted their feelings for each other. "We were beginning to think you weren't going to show and that Chewie and I'd get stuck doing all the work." He shook his head, obviously just kidding with her. He paused after setting that box on the stack and leaned against it, taking a break.

Chewbacca growled and snuffled a bit as Leia entered, and shook his shaggy head. _"Don't let Bantha poodoo for brains here fool you, Leia,"_ the Wookiee chortled good naturedly. _"He hasn't done much of anything, except 'supervise' until he heard the elevator stop. He's been his usual, lazy, bossy self."_ The large, furry biped roared a quiet laugh once again, and then set about setting the large couch towards the wall to be replaced, along with an organized pile of other things.

Leia smiled at the both of them and shook her head. Han was pretending to be indignant to Chewbacca while Threepio simply shook his head in wonder. He'd never understand this custom of insulting your friends, no matter how many customs he was programmed with. He was a droid, and he'd never understand it. It defied all forms of logic, the droid felt.

"Now, hey, that's not true. I did something. I opened the door, didn't I?" asked Han, all but laughing, as he leaned even more languidly against the box. The Wookiee looked like he was getting ready to launch into a tirade of grunts and growls when the box Han was leaning on shifted, and it nearly sent the smuggler tumbling head first into the floor.

"Han, are you all right?" asked Leia, as she reacted quickly, reaching out to try and catch him. Han's other arm was firmly encased in the shaggy grip of Chewbacca, who was barking his own question of Han's well being. She knew it was probably silly to ask, after all, it'd only been a slight fall by an unstable box. Yet, old habits die hard.

The smuggler frowned and nodded in thanks to the Wookiee, who simply nodded back. His massive paw released his friend and Han got himself back under control. "Yeah, I'm all right," he mumbled, looking up at Leia as she released his other arm. He shook himself a bit and adjusted his jacket. He turned to set the box aside, when he noticed that it'd come open. He was busy staring into the box as everyone else returned to what they were doing.

The former princess had picked up a sonic broom, but paused, glancing back at her husband, frowning slightly. "What is it?" she asked softly, setting the broom aside. He was still staring into the box as if it contained some hitherto unknown secret of the universe. The expression on his face was beyond simple puzzlement. "What's wrong? What's so fascinating in the box?"

"That's just it," answered Han, glancing up at her, and then at the cover to the box once more. "The lid says, 'Defunct Tax Law Documentation,' but that's not what's in here." The Corellian was frowning and staring down into the box again. Whatever was in it had him completely confused, judging by his expression. "Or if it is, it's the strangest way of keeping records on tax laws that are out of date that I ever saw," he added, that same odd tone still in his voice.

Her curiosity piqued, Leia put the broom completely aside and moved over to the box that Han stood in front of. Chewbacca towered over them both, also peering into the box, and his grunt was as confused as Han's description had been. She'd learned to understand Chewie's language, to a degree, over the years. She wasn't as well versed and fluent as Han was, but she usually understood what the Wookiee meant.

Her frown deepened as she looked into the box as well. Inside was a stack of holo tapes, and a portable holo viewer. "That's very odd," she said softly, looking at the lid again. It did indeed state that it was documentation for defunct tax laws, and it was sealed by Bail Organa, not long before her birth, according to the date on the box. The situation was more and more curious with every passing moment. "I wonder why Father would hide a holo viewer and holo tapes in a file box marked tax laws in the back of his office closet, under a mountain of other boxes?"

"Because he didn't want it to be found, probably," Han said simply, already pulling the holo viewer out of the box and setting it up. He pushed the power switch and it powered up. "Hey, it still works," he chuckled, already starting to sort through the tapes. None of the labels meant anything to him. They were all dates, numbers and letter combinations that meant anything he could even guess at.

Leia frowned and moved over to the desk with him, where he set the viewer up. Her expression carried many things within it, but none of them seemed to be enthusiasm. "What are you doing?" she demanded quietly, resting a hand on her hip. She didn't know what all this was about, and wasn't sure that she wanted to know. Some things were better left buried, as far as she was concerned. She didn't know what, exactly, this was, but there was a reason it was buried, probably because it wasn't intended to be found, as Han suggested. She hated to admit it, but she was afraid of what could possibly be on the tapes, though she had no idea why she'd be afraid.

The Wookiee and the droid were both silent as Han glanced back up at his wife, still sorting through the holo tapes. He finally found one that was dated some forty to forty two years ago, and slid it into the viewer. "What does it look like I'm doing, Leia? I'm going to see what these are all about. What are you so bent out of shape about?"

She opened her mouth to reply and snapped it shut again, frowning even deeper. The irritation was easily read upon her features and Han stared at her before activating the play command on the holo viewer. When it was clear that Leia wasn't going to answer him, he turned to her with his hands on her shoulders. "Listen, Leia," he began, looking into her brown eyes. "Your father hid these back there for a reason. They've been hidden at least since before you were born. There was something he was trying to keep Palpatine from finding, I'd guess. Palpatine pretty much wiped out all records of everything that was 'harmful' to his Empire. These holo tapes could be little pieces of the truth that would be lost otherwise."

"Master Han does have a point, Mistress Leia," remarked Threepio, finally deigning to speak. Leia wondered what kept him from doing so this long. "If Master Han's hypothesis about these is true, we could be looking at a very rare chance to discover what _really_ happened at some key points during those turbulent years. There could be a sense of closure, perhaps."

Leia knew that Threepio's mind had most likely been wiped. She knew that he had been around at least since before hers and Luke's birth. The poor droid had existed for who knows how many years before his earliest memories, because those before that had been taken from him. Most likely, they'd been taken from him by someone in the Alliance for safety's sake, rather than the Empire doing it maliciously. In either case, the droid had lost a significant portion of his life, ostensibly forever.

The former princess sighed and gripped the edges of the desk, staring down at its white surface. She drew a deep breath and held it, fighting off the myriad images that came rushing through her mind. She didn't know what was on those holo tapes, but she was terrified of what could possibly be on them. It didn't make sense even to her, but she had a very queasy, sick feeling in her stomach. After a couple of moments, she finally relented, "All right, all right. Let's see what's on them."

Chewbacca rumbled softly as he laid a shaggy paw on Leia's shoulder, _"It'll be all right, Leia. You'll see. If it solves mysteries, then so much the better, right? We'd all like to know what was going on during those times. Not even Yoda knew everything, and we didn't have much time to talk while he was coordinating trooper movements on Kashyyyk."_ He snorted softly and patted her shoulder before taking his paw back away.

Leia simply nodded. She'd heard Luke mention the name Yoda, and even her father had spoken of him once or twice, in very hushed and guarded tones, even at their home on Alderaan. She knew he was supposed to be a Jedi Master, or something similar, but you could put all the information she knew about the Clone Wars and the rise of the Empire into a data pad and still have memory left over, easily. She knew that Obi-Wan had fought in the wars for her father and the Republic, and that was the most detailed information she had about them, really. Her father never really talked about the Clone Wars that much.

Taking that as acquiescence, Han pushed the play button on the holo viewer. The lights of the office automatically dimmed a bit to compensate for the recording. The viewer released a slightly bluish white tinged image, projected above it, in a space that covered most of half the room. The scene was the enormous Senatorial session chamber, where the Senators all sat in repulsor lift driven saucer shaped speeders that they would move closer to the Chancellor's seat when they were addressing the floor.

In the speeder saucer that was moving forward, there was a woman in very ornate dress, with an outlandishly complex hair style in which her hair looked like Bantha horns or something. Her dress and over cloak was red, trimmed in gold, and her face was garishly white, with red dots on the cheeks, and a small band in the middle of her bottom lip that was also red. In addition, there was an older gentleman, with a thick head of hair, and a pronounced nose. The face was recognizable, even without the awful scarring. "Palpatine," Leia whispered, then frowned at the image of the woman behind him.

The woman was actually more like a girl. Leia estimated she couldn't have been much more than fourteen or fifteen years old. The image of Palpatine was speaking, "…I present Queen Amidala, recently elected ruler of Naboo, who speaks on our behalf." The image of Palpatine moved to allow the young girl to take the stand as he sat.

"Naboo?" asked Leia of no one in particular. She was too busy staring at the young woman in the hologram. "Oh, that's right. The Queens of Naboo wear the ornate dresses and hairstyles, and the makeup, too. The 'Scar of Remembrance' they call it. Wow, I've never seen an actual Naboo Queen in full regalia before." Her eyes never left the young woman, and she was shaking her head. "I never realized just how young some of the Naboo Queens are. This girl can't be more than fifteen years old, and ruling an entire planet."

The young Queen cleared her throat in the hologram and began speaking, in an austere and husky sounding voice, "Honorable representatives of the Republic, distinguished delegates, and your honor Supreme Chancellor Valorum, I come to you under the gravest of circumstances. The Naboo system has been invaded by force. Invaded…against all the laws of the Republic, by the droid armies of the Trade…." The young Queen was cut off by an outraged cry from a greenish gray skinned Neimoidian, who could only have been the Senator from the Trade Federation.

"She may be young," remarked Han, also looking the young woman over as they watched the hologram. "But you've got to admit, she had some guts, going up against the Trade Federation with little political backing behind her. Especially at that time, when they were probably at their strongest." He folded his arms over his chest and watched the squabble in the Senate with interest.

Leia glanced up at him as she stood beside him and frowned. "She had guts, all right. The Trade Federation was one of the toughest consortiums of their time. Of course, that was before Palpatine got around to destroying them. There is evidence that points to that, at least." She shuddered at the very thought of Palpatine sending people, probably her real father, though she had a hard time still of thinking of him in that way, to do the dirty deed of murder.

Han grinned and nodded softly, wrapping an arm around her shoulders. "Yeah, she kind of reminds me of a certain princess and Imperial Senator that was pretty much determined to take on the whole Empire by herself, and lucky for her she had a lot of friends," he chuckled, squeezing her by the shoulders as he spoke. The squabble had continued during this whole time on the hologram.

Leia frowned. "Hey," she said indignantly. "I wasn't that bad. I knew somebody had to do something, otherwise we'd still be stuck with Palpatine and his goons. They–" she stopped suddenly as something caught her attention. Abruptly, she turned back towards the hologram, watching it intently.

The young Queen was finally speaking again. From the tone of her voice, she was not overly thrilled, and her expression mirrored this fact. She was burning with anger. There was a definite sadness in her eyes as she continued to speak, however. Leia got the idea that she really didn't want to do what she was doing, despite her anger. The Queen intoned after the squabbling had settled down, and the man called Valorum had just asked her if she wished to defer, "I will _not_ defer... I have come before you to resolve this attack on our sovereignty _now._ I was not elected to watch my people suffer and die while you discuss this invasion in a committee. If this body is not capable of action, I suggest new leadership is needed." The young Queen paused, and the sadness in her eyes shone through all that much more before she resumed, "I move for a vote of 'No Confidence' in Chancellor Valorum's leadership."

The Senate chamber erupted in a cacophony of murmurs and shouts, while the man called Valorum stared at the young Queen in shock for a moment and fell heavily back into his seat. Han raised his brows and whistled, "Wow…talk about a tough call to make. I get the idea that the Queen there wasn't too happy about doing that. From everything I remember, and heard, Valorum was actually a pretty decent guy." He pushed the stop button and took the holo tape from the viewer.

Chewbacca snuffled and nodded, rumbling quietly, _"Valorum was a good man. Honest, fair and just. He had the full support of the Wookiee Senator's office. My uncle worked in that office."_ He shook his head sadly, adjusting his bandolier over his shoulder, then leaning against the wall again. _"According to my uncle, that was the event that led to Palpatine being elected. A sad, sad day in the Senate chamber that was."_

Leia nodded softly, apparently lost in thought. She was trying to figure out if the reason Bail had saved that was because it showed the manipulation that Palpatine had used to jockey his way into greater power, or if there was something else. "I wonder who she was," she murmured softly, rubbing the back of her neck absently. She now had many mysteries on her mind.

"We may find out in a minute," Han said. He'd already loaded the next holo tape into the viewer and the place and most of the faces had changed, but there was a face that appeared to be much the same. "This one's dated almost ten years later. That looks like the grand assembly hall on Corellia. I should know. I've been there often enough." He pointed at a couple of the holograms. "That sort of looks like your father, there's Mon Mothma, you can't miss her anywhere. Then there's our Naboo Queen, but without the fancy clothes and the makeup." Indeed, the figures he pointed out appeared to be exactly who he surmised they were.

Sure enough, Leia recognized the handsome features of her father in his younger days. His skin was a healthy tan, and his build was that of a powerful young middle aged man, complete with the distinguished goatee that he had worn as long as she could remember. She'd recognize him anywhere. Further, as Han had said, the face and form of Mon Mothma, with her quiet regal authority, was also easily recognizable, even as a young, attractive woman.

But the face of the Naboo Queen suddenly struck her hard and fast. Closing her eyes a moment, she allowed the face to swim past her sub consciousness for a moment. She was sure she'd seen the face before, before watching the first hologram, anyway. Images and feelings flittered through her mind, and she opened her eyes suddenly, gawking at the holographic display. Her expression was one of shock, and disbelief.

The image of Bail Organa on the hologram was addressing the assembled leaders of the planet of Corellia, Han's home planet. His tones were deep, resonating, and ringing as he spoke, "Constituents of Corellia, we of the Loyalist Committee are here to address you concerning the upcoming Military Creation Act that certain parties are trying to get cleared through the Senate. On behalf of the Committee, I present Padmé Amidala, Senator of Naboo." There was some polite applause from the citizens of Corellia that were assembled in the hall as the Naboo Senator took the stand.

Leia continued to stare in disbelief and shock as the Naboo Senator stepped forward. Her voice wasn't nearly as husky or austere as it had been in the previous hologram. Han kept flicking his gaze between the face of the Naboo Senator and Leia. The hologram spoke, "Honored members of the Corellian General Assembly, and Corellian citizens in general, thank you for agreeing to listen to me speak to you today."

As the young woman continued to speak, Han was struck by the amazing resemblance between her and Leia. It wasn't so obvious that you instantly were aware of it, but it was obvious enough that once you realized they resembled one another, you wonder how you missed it before. Without the makeup, Han could truly see a marked resemblance. He murmured half under his breath, "By the Five Fire Rings of Fornax, she looks a lot like you, Leia."

Leia said nothing, instead just continually staring at the image of the woman as she spoke. The more she watched her, the more certain she was that she'd seen this woman before, long, long ago. The images and feelings floated through her mind once again, and she even imagined she heard the same voice that she was hearing now say, "Leia." Only in her vague recollection, the voice was tired, strained, in pain. Yet, the voice was the same. She was almost certain of it.

The image of Padmé Amidala continued, with a warm, but passionate, plea, "The Military Creation Act will cause a dissension that will divide the Republic for all time if it is allowed to come to fruition." The image paused and surveyed the group she was addressing. Her eyes held the same fire and determination as Leia's, and that was a look Han knew well. The recording continued, "This act will enable an army to be formed and used against the Separatist Movement, and this will only cost everyone, on all sides, more equipment, more credits, and more lives. It will destroy the very thing it is supposedly trying to protect: democracy. There will be no peaceful resolution to this, and no peaceful re-admittance of any separated world back into the Republic as long as military wins over diplomacy at the solution planning table."

Threepio and Chewie were silent, but Han whistled long and low again, shaking his head. "Man, she had a lot of guts. She went head to head with the Trade Federation, and then opposed the Military Creation Act? Isn't that the act that ultimately ended up being the authorization of the clones coming into active use?" He ran a hand back through his hair, and glanced at Leia, who still hadn't said anything. He noticed her far away look and frowned, "What is it? What's bugging you, Leia?"

On the desk, all but forgotten for the moment, Padmé Amidala continued her speech against the Military Creation act. Leia swallowed and continued to stare at the image of the woman. "Yes," she answered Han, finally, tearing her eyes away from the image for a moment, long enough to glance up at him before returning her gaze to the woman's face. "That's the act that essentially legalized the use of the clones as a military force on behalf of the Republic. Yes, she had a lot of guts." She paused and reached out and paused the display, walking around the viewer slowly, studying the woman from every angle. "I've seen her before," she continued, answering his last questions.

"Before?" asked Han softly, turning more towards her now and taking her shoulders into his hands. His expression was confused, and he frowned as he looked into her eyes. Her eyes looked far away at the moment, like she was light years away. "You mean before the last recording we watched?"

The lovely former princess sighed and nodded, laying her hands along his elbows. Her gaze met his, and she began relating the tale, "Back on Endor, before the big battle, Luke asked me if I remembered my mother. He didn't remember Mother at all. Nothing." Han listened intently and smiled a bit at her to encourage her. She finally continued, "I told him that I remembered very vague things…just images and feelings, really. I knew she was sad, but I didn't know why."

During this time, Chewie and Threepio had wisely decided to go start on one of the inner office suites, leaving Han and Leia out there, with the viewer, to talk. The smuggler swallowed slowly, absorbing the gravity of what she was saying. "So, you think this Amidala woman is your mother?" he asked softly, nodding back toward Padmé's image on the holo viewer.

Leia nodded softly. Her expression was many things, all at once: happy, sad, wistful, there were too many emotions to try to assign to that one expression. "I'm almost certain of it," she replied quietly, fidgeting with her sleeve, a habit she had. "Mon Mothma said that she knew my mother well. She had commented once, not long ago, that Padmé Naberrie Amidala, the Senator from Naboo, was pregnant with the child of Anakin Skywalker. Luke is the son of Anakin Skywalker, and I'm his twin sister, so…you figure it out."

She hadn't meant that to sound as harsh as it probably had. She was preparing to apologize when Han waved her off with it, still regarding her with a riveting gaze. His own eyes seemed to burn into hers as they stood there, studying each other. Finally, he relented, "Yeah, well, I can see the family resemblance, and it isn't all looks, either. She's also got the same sort of fire and drive that you have, the things that make you such an excellent leader, you get from her, Leia." He smiled that crooked smile at her again as he wrapped her gently into his arms and held her close. "Your mother was a very strong, very compassionate woman. The kind of woman every man dreams of. Thank the stars her daughter turned out the same way."

Leia just shook her head and snuggled into his arms. He was right, actually, when she thought about it. Padmé Naberrie Amidala was a very strong woman, possessed of a caring and compassionate heart, and had the fire and drive that made her an excellent leader. People loved her and would follow her anywhere that she chose to lead them, she could tell that by the way that everyone acted in the holograms, and the way her father had always regarded her on the very rare occasions that he spoke of her real mother.

She could tell by the way he spoke that he and her real mother had been very close friends, and that he had regarded the younger woman with a respect that most reserve for the most wise and ancient elders of a given people. He didn't speak of her much, but when he did, it was with great admiration and respect. He'd never so much as told Leia her name, but he'd told her so much more with the way he acted and spoke. Even Breha, her adoptive mother, had respected Padmé, though she spoke of her even less than Bail had.

 _I'll have to make copies of these for Luke, so he'll have a chance to get to know Mother better as well,_ thought Leia as she pulled up a chair with Han and hit the pause button again, letting the hologram resume playing. _That way, maybe he'll find his own memories of her somewhere in his mind. If I have memories of her, even if they're only images and feelings, he must have them somewhere, too._

They didn't get much of the cleaning done that she'd wanted to accomplish, but she'd accomplished something a lot more important, she was sure. She'd discovered a great deal about her mother. The holo tapes that she watched over the course of the next week, when she'd taken the holo viewer and holo tapes back home, showed her many sides to her mother. She saw her make countless speeches and appeals for several different things, she saw casual recordings made of her with Bail and Breha, and she'd seen her interactions with other people. The more Leia learned about her mother, the prouder she became to be her daughter. In a way, it sort of made up for some of the shock of discovering that her father was Darth Vader.

There had even been a holo tape in which she'd recorded of herself and Anakin, not long after she discovered she was pregnant. It took nearly the whole week for Leia to get up the nerve to watch it. She argued with herself about watching her mother with the monster that had been her father, but when she actually watched it, with great prodding from Han, she discovered that her father hadn't always been the monster she'd thought him to be. She saw a man that she could understand her mother falling in love with, and having children with. She didn't know what happened to turn Anakin Skywalker into Darth Vader, but now, at least, she had a bit of a different perspective.

Luke had always claimed to feel good in their father. One of the holograms was of Luke's and her birth, and her mother also claimed to feel good in Anakin. It broke Leia's heart to watch her mother give birth to them, plead with Obi-Wan to make sure that Anakin was all right, because there was still good in him, and to die with those words on her lips. Maybe she was right, maybe Luke was right.

Anakin had been redeemed when he died, having died heroically, saving Luke's life, and the lives of the galaxy at large. Luke had been right, there had been good in him after all, though she fought long and hard against admitting to that fact. Now, she knew her mother had felt the same thing, all those years ago. Between Luke, and her mother, perhaps now she could start down the path to forgive her father. She found herself hoping so, and she was surprised to discover that she did.

11


End file.
